Libya restores diplomatic ties with Iraq: official

Libya has restored full diplomatic relations with Iraq and plans to send an ambassador to Baghdad more than eight years after cutting off ties, Iraq's deputy foreign minister said Friday.

“There was a delegation that came here, and they said that this decision is under discussion at the foreign ministry in Libya and this step will be taken soon, and they took that step yesterday,” Labid Abbawi told AFP.

Abbawi was referring to a visit to Baghdad by then Libyan interim premier Mahmud Jibril in October.

Libya announced in June 2003 it was breaking off diplomatic ties with Iraq and closing its embassy shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of the country earlier that year.

American authorities had said at the time foreign diplomats in Iraq no longer enjoyed diplomatic immunity or any of the privileges they were accorded under their accreditation to now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime.

A year ago, uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt triggered a similar revolt in Libya that months later eventually deposed and killed Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi.